Chicago Whisky Week - Day 2 & 3

DAY 2 (Evening)

Tuesday evening started out at (where else?) Delilah's for Mike Miller's Whisky 101. A big group then headed over to the Duke of Perth for Fish & Chips courtesy of the Diageo Classic Malts. If you wanted to rub shoulders with industry insiders, this was the place to be. The teams from William Grant, Classic Malts, Highland Park were all there, sharing stories and having a good time. The night ended up (where else?) Delilah's. I'm getting way too predictable.

DAY 3

On Wednesday I braved sleet and rain and jumped on the El to get over to the Erie Street Cafe to meet up with Jeff Topping and John MacDougall and try their new releases.

Jeff has a new bottling of his 15 year old Wild Scotsman15 year old vatted malt. Jeff continues to improve as a blender, and I think this is an improvement on the last bottling I tried. Using only ex-bourbon casks in his vatting, while not a complete disclosure of the recipe, Jeff did let me know that Bowmore, Ledaig, and Tamdhu are in there. Furthermore, despite Jeff's tight relationship with Bladnoch and John MacDougall's ties to Springbank, neither f those single malts are in the Wild Scotsman mix.

Jeff also served his first independent single malt bottling, a 13 year old Ben Nevis aged in an ex-bourbon hogshead and bottled at 46%. Distilled in 1992 and bottled in 2006, only 26 cases are available, most of those in Chicago and slightly fewer in Northern Kentucky. Jeff is looking at Mortloch and Bowmore for future bottlings.

Currently WS is only available in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Jeff hopes to be in Indian, California and Florida this year. Oh...want to be friends with Jeff? Go to http://www.myspace.com/wildscotsmanwhisky

DAY 3 (Evening)

Headed back over to Delilah's for a mini-American Whiskey expo. Buffalo Trace; Elijah Craig; Jim Beam; Wild Turkey, Wasmund's, Kentucky Bourbon and Bulleit were all represented and pouring freely.

Rye whiskies are hot right now, but I must admit I tend to like Bourbons with higher corn percentages in the mash (like Maker's Mark)...last night did a lot to develop my palate for Rye.

I chatted with Jimmy Russell who was pouring his fantastic Russell Reserve; Tom Bulleit gave me the run down on Bulleit Bourbon - which will be a story for another time; and Fred Noe introduced me to his Jim Beam Rye.

And when you are at Delilah's, if Mary is behind the bar, ask her for one of her famous Margaritas. George Grant swears by them.

Comments

[Chris]

Just a little confused about your comment on the Rye whiskies and the Bourbons. Maybe I misunderstood but Rye's are predominantly rye and Bourbon's are predominantly corn. Some Bourbons have a high % of rye in their mix but always less than corn. I am assuming you prefer the higher mix of wheat in your Bourbons as opposed to the higher rye blends. Correct?

[Kevin Erskine]

That's it. In order to be a Bourbon, the mash must be 51% corn. The other 49% may be Rye or Wheat (or both) and some percentage of malted barley is in the mix as well.

So I tend to prefer Bourbons with a higher percentage of corn or those that have wheat as opposed to rye.